


Hello, Nurse!

by Quicksilver_Rain



Category: Thrilling Intent (Web Series)
Genre: A Singular Homestuck Reference, Ashe is a Nurse, Flirting, Gen, Hospitals, I Don't Even go There, Markus is a Disaster, Or trying to, POV Markus, by accident
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-04 00:28:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17888054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quicksilver_Rain/pseuds/Quicksilver_Rain
Summary: Markus didn’t remember the events that led to him waking up, groggy and a little light headed and staring at the sterilized white ceiling of a hospital room.However, considering the fact that there was a bag labeled ‘morphine’ attached to is IV and a cute, silvery haired woman fiddling with his charts on the other side of the room, whatever it was must have been epic.





	Hello, Nurse!

**Author's Note:**

> This is more or less cross-posted from Tumblr, with a couple things re-written, because 2015 was a long time ago and more paragraphs for readability.
> 
> Original (edited) Tumblr Ramblings and Other Notes at the End

Markus didn’t remember the events that led to him waking up, groggy and a little light headed and staring at the sterilized white ceiling of a hospital room.

However, considering the fact that there was a bag labeled ‘morphine’ attached to is IV and a cute, silvery haired woman fiddling with his charts on the other side of the room, whatever it was must have been _epic_.

He made a solid attempt to wrangle his thoughts into some semblance of order before greeting the young lady, because he was nothing if not a gentleman and it was only polite.

Unfortunately, the only thing is drug addled brain could force out was, “hello...” and then he noticed that she was half bent over the counter in the far corner, and the only semi-polite thing he could get his mouth to say was, “… _legs_.”

The silver haired woman’s head jerked up and she looked over her shoulder at him, squinting at him for a moment before pushing off the counter and looking down at herself.

She tapped her foot, like she was surreptitiously checking to make sure it was still attached to the aforementioned leg, before looking back up at Markus. “Thank you?”

Markus nodded in agreement, because that seemed like the thing to do before trying again. “So, what’s a girl like you…” he took a moment to breathe, because suddenly that seemed more difficult than it realistically was supposed to be. Usually he was smoother than this. “...doing in a place like this?”

She snorted, unladylike but endearing, and went back to the chart, apparently unamused by his pickup lines. “I work here.”

A few seconds of silence fell, wherein Markus tried to figure out why everything sounded like TV static. “...What’s a guy like me doing in a place like this?”

“You fell down a flight of stairs.”

Markus blinked and then a bubble of laughter forced itself out of him and ow, that _hurt._ “Must’ve been some fight.” He paused, because laughing took a lot out of him, and then, “who kicked me?”

It was probably Kier, now that Markus was thinking about it.

He’d probably just gotten really excited or something and pushed Markus out of the way without thinking. It was par for the course, really, though Kier usually tried to make sure that there was a wall or couch nearby for Markus to fall into whenever he deemed it necessary to manhandle him, because he was a good roommate and a better friend.

The young woman tucked the chart beneath her arm and walked over to the side of the bed to check his pulse. “Apparently, you ran up a flight of stairs, passed out at the top, and fell right back down them.”

Now, Markus Velafi was no stranger to the fact that he had little to no stamina and that grabbing things off the top shelf of the pantry sometimes winded him.

He didn't usually tend to fall down flights of stairs, though, if only because he was generally able to predict his own weakness and kept an iron death-grip on either Kier or the banister to stay upright.

How this plan had failed him after all these years, he didn't know.

“How?”

“Well, your chart says that you’re just… _absurdly_ anemic, so I assume that your red blood cells couldn’t carry enough oxygen to your brain and you passed out because of it,” she sent him an amused smile, “but four years in nursing school _could_ be failing me.”

She wasn’t even speaking medical babble at him, and he was very, very lost, so Markus just nodded and hoped he didn't look like too much of an idiot.

A minute of silence passed before she spoke again.

“You broke three ribs, sprained your shoulder and gave yourself one hell of a concussion. We’re keeping you for observation because I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with iron levels this low before.”

She paused again, eyeing him like she wanted to make sure he was following what she was saying.

He wasn’t, but she continued anyway:

“The doctor on call isn’t even sure how you’re able to function.” She scribbled something on his chart with a pen that had been tucked behind her ear. “Your friend’s been bothering us to let you know when you woke back up. I’ll go ahead and send him in.”

And with that, she left, taking the chart with her.

##

The next time Markus saw her was in the evening, he thought, but it was hard to tell when twilight lasted from six to eleven and the sunset had been glinting in the window of the hospital room for several hours.

Kier had gone out to find himself dinner and make sure that Markus’ boss knew he wasn't going to be in for the next couple weeks, and the buzzing sound that had been plaguing him since he woke up had finally let up.

The nurse ignored him as she walked in, going straight for his IV without so much as a hello, so he decided to try again with a greeting.

Unfortunately, all he came up with was a slightly slurred, “hello eyes.”

She lifted an eyebrow at him in a way that reminded Markus forcibly of his boss and then blinked. “What?”

Markus gestured, attempting for suave, quoting some bullshit thing he’d heard Colvin’s niece say last time he’s babysat her. “Your eyes are an ocean.”

The young woman frowned and lifted an eyebrow, “my eyes are amber.”

Well, shit.

“An ocean of whiskey?” He half asked, continuing on before she could interrupt, “the good kind, like what Thog keeps locked in the bottom drawer of his desk and only drinks when he’s had a hard day and thinks no one’s looking.”

He wasn’t sure if she accepted is rambling as explanation or if she was just humouring him when she asked a half interested, “who’s _Thog?_ ”

“What?”

She pursed her lips, looking gravely amused about the whole thing. “Thog, you were saying he had a bottle of fancy whiskey in his desk?”

Markus blinked, unable to recall that particular part of the conversation, though he wasn't sure if that was just due to general forgetfulness, the concussion, the morphine, or a combination thereof.

He decided, however, that she probably wasn't making up his mention of his boss and decided to tell her about him anyway. “Oh, he’s… um… the head… Employment Lawyer in the firm I work at. He does Labor Lawyering things.”

“Which is it?”

Markus squinted, wondering if she was fucking with him. “What?”

She raised her eyebrows again, her mouth pulling up like she thought he was being funny. “Is he an Employment Lawyer or a Labor Lawyer?”

There was a couple of seconds where Markus processed this, before answering with an unsteady, “both, it’s both.”

“What’s he like?” she asked, pulling a blood pressure cuff from a hook on the wall, sounding a little more than politely interested or maybe that was just the really quite fantastic drugs they were giving him.

Markus thought for a moment before coming to the conclusion that this lady probably wouldn’t know Thog if he walked up and kissed her, so he was probably safe to say whatever he wanted. “He’s a grumpy sonovabitch. I don’t think he smiles, and he actually terrifies the hell out of me.” He tried to cross his arms, only to earn a light smack on the shoulder from the nurse, who was still trying to take his blood pressure. “…But I _think_ he’s a good guy, probably. He doesn’t growl at me too much as long as I have his case notes together when he needs them.”

She nodded smiling in a way that reminded him a little of a shark and finished what she was doing. “Well, that’s nice. I’ll be back in a couple hours to check on you before night shift starts.”

##

Kier checked back in after another hour or so to tell him that Thog had gone ahead and filed the proper medical leave paperwork for him and not to worry about it. He also reported that when he’d told Thog about the events leading up to Markus’s hospital stay, he’d been both impressed and exasperated about the whole thing, and Markus wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

It was about half an hour of silence after Kier was shooed out of the room, citing the end of visiting hours before the amber eyed nurse came around to see him again, true to her word.

He smiled at her, letting her do the vast majority of her work before speaking, this time less due to the drugs and more because it would be a shame to break his current winning streak. “Hello hair.”

She quirked a smile that was equal parts amused and vexed. “Are you just going to keep referring to me using various parts of my anatomy?”

Markus tried for is best innocent expression and probably failed anyway. “Well, I don’t know your name, do I?”

She smiled, this time a little more genuinely. “My name’s Ashe.”

He grinned back at her. “Ashe... I like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> TBH This fic is like 1500 words long, but it has Hidden Depths:
> 
> The first is that Inien is Colvin's niece, and she's both 15 and was _deep_ into her Homestuck phase when Markus teenager-sat her, so he heard a bunch of random shit he didn't understand and only retained that one line.
> 
> The second is that I've never actually read Homestuck, and that line's only in there because my friendo Drowsy said it and I thought it fit, because like, who even says shit like that?? I didn't find out it was a Homestuck reference until _after_ I posted the original story and by then it was too late.
> 
> Thirdly, I just really like the idea that Thog and Ashe are Actually Dating in this one (though obviously, they don't have to be), though pretty much all Markus knows about it is that Thog is dating a Nurse. He wouldn't know that Ashe is _the_ Nurse, and like, obviously Thog isn't gonna talk about it at work, so basically Markus kinda accidentally shittalks his boss to his boss's girlfriend, while Ashe is just like, "oh man, dinner's gonna be fuckin' hilarious tonight."
> 
> And yanno, if they all end up in a relationship later, I wouldn't be mad about it~
> 
> Also, it's probably obvious, but I dunno jack shit about doctoring, though I _do_ know enough about biology to come up with improbable reasons to send someone to the hospital for Fic Reasons.


End file.
